Alabama vows not to have another bowl letdown in title game

Mark Almond, Birmingham NewsAlabama coach Nick Saban leaves the field after his team lost to Utah in the Sugar Bowl last eyar.TUSCALOOSA -- Two nights into 2009 and two bowls into his tenure as Alabama's football coach, Nick Saban sat in the depths of the Louisiana Superdome with a postgame scowl he hasn't flashed since.

A 31-17 upset loss to Utah in last season's Sugar Bowl was the valley in two seasons of momentum peaks for the Crimson Tide, which has spent time since that night trying to figure out exactly what went awry.

Much like Alabama used last year's SEC title game loss to Florida as fuel to prepare for the rematch, its own uninspired effort in New Orleans is clearly shading the Crimson Tide's preparation for the Jan. 7 BCS national title game against Texas.

"It was the worst loss I've been a part of," said left guard Mike Johnson, who hurt his ankle and missed much of the game. "I didn't get a whole lot of plays. But you go in there and play a game like that, get your butt handed to you and you kind of learn that going into these bowl games you get three, four weeks off and anything can happen. The other team is going to come out and try to beat you, and nobody is going to hand you anything."

Alabama's 12-1 record at this time last year certainly didn't mean much to Utah, which jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and withstood a rally to prevail by two touchdowns when hardly anyone was predicting it to win at all.

But their statistical edge was decisive. Alabama rushed for only 31 yards, while Utah quarterback Brian Johnson shredded the Crimson Tide's secondary for 336 yards and three touchdowns.

Receiver Freddie Brown alone had 12 catches for 125 yards.

While offering credit to Utah, Alabama players admitted to taking the Utes lightly after the game, a refrain that has continued until now.

"Some people probably didn't take it as seriously as some of the other things they might should not have been doing," defensive end Lorenzo Washington said. "It's different for every person. When it all comes down to it, when you lay your head down at night, you know what you did. You know if you were giving your best. You know if you were doing things that weren't allowing you to play at your best.

"Now everybody has learned from that."

That includes Saban. Alabama's coach noted after the Utah loss that "missed tackles in the secondary hurt us badly."

"One of the things that hurts you in bowl games if you don't really focus and get yourself in position to finish plays in tackling," Saban said.

As a result, Alabama's first four practices for the BCS title game have been noticeably more physical, according to players. Saban instructs players not to tackle to the ground in practice, thus avoiding injuries, but he is now toying with the idea of holding a full-scale "scrimmage" today to aide in game preparation.

"I feel coach Saban doesn't want the same thing to happen this year that happened last year," linebacker Eryk Anders said. "He's doing a good job of getting us prepared and making us hit, even though sometimes we may not want to."

From a motivational standpoint, it's difficult to draw too many parallels this year to the Sugar Bowl. Quarterback Greg McElroy said last year's trip, while a good bowl, was a "consolation prize," in the eyes of a team that had won its first 12 games before losing to Florida in the SEC title game.

"You want to win each and every game you play," linebacker Cory Reamer said, "but we weren't prepared at all last year and weren't ready to go out there and compete like we should have been."

That was the case on and off the field. Days before the Sugar Bowl, Outland Trophy-winning left tackle Andre Smith was sent home once UA officials got wind of impermissible contact between Smith's family and a sports agent.

Not only did the situation rob Alabama of perhaps its best player, it was a massive distraction at the time that the team is determined to not repeat.

"We had a lot of guys that were going to get drafted," Reamer said, "so there were agents and stuff like that everywhere that really weren't interested in what our best interest was. It was something that a lot of guys weren't used to. We had a lot of success last year, so there were a lot of people around here that were trying to be distractions, and then they got some teammates caught up in that.

"I think we're a little more prepared for this now. Coach Saban has done of good job of getting guys in here to make sure that we know what's going on so when stuff like that happens, it's not a surprise. We know how to handle it."

Saban was still stewing about the Utah loss this past spring, when after the A-Day Game he described the lack of "enthusiasm" and "energy" for the Sugar Bowl, pointing a finger at Alabama's fans in the process.

Asked this week how that memory is influencing the building to the BCS title game, Saban thought for a moment and replied, "I don't know."

"I think that every experience that you have should be a learning experience," he said. "I think the motivation is a little bit different, so therefore I hope the passion should be a little bit different. I think all the experiences we've had to this point, good and bad, should reinforce what we are trying to build in terms of character and attitude and what it takes to be successful at a championship level."